1996 Dagger FS - Early DH project

Dami

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Another acquisition moving forwards from the depths of my workshop.. This one I got two years ago for about 20€ or so, and it had been waiting for me to tackle the issues it had. It's a 95/96 Dagger FS frame with the AMP MacPherson strut rear end, but the previous owner, an AMP collector here in Finland, sold it to me as wall art. Partly because it was missing the spring retainer plate from the shock, but I also found a small crack on the chainstay near the BB when I was taking it apart.

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My friend is a good aluminum welder so he helped me out by repairing the chainstay, and some fellow bike guy from US helped me out by sending the retainer plate for the AMP shock. Just some weeks ago I got a donor bike for the Palmer M1 replica project, from where I need the red Ringle rear hub. The donor bike had also some other interesting stuff on it that fit really nicely for the Dagger, there was the whole Sun Rhynolite / Ringle wheelset (from where I will take the rear hub later), the really nice condition Judy FSX, and a pair of early Magura Racelines. These were enough to get the basis for the build, and in addition to these I found from my parts bins a worn RF Turbine crankset, Syncros cog, M900 rear derailleur and especially the Bullet Bros chain guide. The Bullet Bros I've had in an unopened package for a long time now and finally I got a project where I could use it! :cool:

Most of you probably remember these, but for those who haven't ran into them before, they're kind of like Shimano's modern rear derailleur friction clutch (Shadow technology or something like that) in a very 90's rough and dirty style 😄 It will attach to the lower part of the rear der cage by a spring and should take away some of the chain slap. Can't wait to get to test it the first time! Like the package says, 52% of the top downhillers in the world can't be wrong 😂

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Couple of days ago I got the chance to bring it to the first mockup build phase, and so far so good! Put some worn Ritchey Z-Maxes on it, some Club Roost bars, and it's starting to look like I was hoping. My thoughts were to build it into an early 'Mammoth Kamikaze' style downhill bike, form the era before double crowns and other DH specific parts. The cog could be bigger naturally, but then it would stay permanently in the garage with my legs 😄

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Let's see how it turns out in the end!
 
Got the bike finished and tested on the local paths last weekend. This is definitely one of the most fun bikes I own, was a blast to throw it around! As the goal was to build an mid 90's DH weapon I naturally didn't aim to make it light in anyway, but eventually it turned out weighing only 12kg.

Only thing left missing is a Mr. Crud chain guide on the chainstay. My friend has one, but he has lost it in his shed and it will take a while for him to find it from the mess 😅 So I didn't hold my breath for it to appear and finished this one without it for now.

This could've been also a very nice XC weapon with some AMP forks and lighter bits, but old DH bikes are my cup of tea and pretty happy about how this turned out (and how it rides)!

P.S. The Bullet Bros tensioner works surprisingly well (as long as I don't get it tangled up into some branch or root) 😄

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Got the bike finished and tested on the local paths last weekend. This is definitely one of the most fun bikes I own, was a blast to throw it around! As the goal was to build an mid 90's DH weapon I naturally didn't aim to make it light in anyway, but eventually it turned out weighing only 12kg.

Only thing left missing is a Mr. Crud chain guide on the chainstay. My friend has one, but he has lost it in his shed and it will take a while for him to find it from the mess 😅 So I didn't hold my breath for it to appear and finished this one without it for now.

This could've been also a very nice XC weapon with some AMP forks and lighter bits, but old DH bikes are my cup of tea and pretty happy about how this turned out (and how it rides)!

P.S. The Bullet Bros tensioner works surprisingly well (as long as I don't get it tangled up into some branch or root) 😄

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Really nice job. Love the FX fork!
 

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